Compared to LCD HDTVs, plasma HDTVs are becoming cheaper by the minute. A report from the Wall Street Journal claims that a 50-inch plasma is, on average, $300 less expensive than the same size LCD. Part of this price drop is improved manufacturing technology for plasma screens, but perhaps an even larger contributor is competition and falling demand for plasmas.

Pioneer and Vizio discontinued manufacturing plasma TVs this year, which left Sony, Samsung and Panasonic as the only major names producing the technology. And demand for plasmas is nowhere near demand for LCD screens: a DisplaySearch report indicates that North Americans purchased about 10 million LCDs and only 3.8 million plasmas in the same or similar size category.